New Hanover man admits violating law in stray bullet incident

New Hanover police officer Dekkar Dyas takes photos of a blown out rear window of a Chevrolet Tahoe which was found parked in the lot of the Hickory Park Restaurant. The driver reported the vehicle had been shot at. Police discovered it had been hit by a stray bullet from a private shooting range. (Mercury file photo by Kevin Hoffman)

NORRISTOWN — A New Hanover man has admitted to allowing a rifle to be unsafely discharged on his property, from where authorities alleged a bullet strayed and struck the window of a vehicle operated by a woman and her three children on Route 73.

David Beamer, 52, of the 3300 block of New Hanover Square Road, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to a summary charge of violating New Hanover Ordinance 92-5, essentially admitting that he did not have a regulation backstop, which is something constructed to stop or redirect bullets on a property.

“The ordinance says that you are not allowed to discharge a high-powered rifle without employing a proper backstop. He’s admitting to unsafely discharging a high-powered rifle without the proper backstop,” said Assistant District Attorney Stewart Ryan, explaining the nature of Beamer’s guilty plea.

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Judge Gary S. Silow, who accepted the plea agreement, ordered Beamer to pay a $100 fine within 30 days. A summary charge is similar to a traffic citation.

“He’s basically admitting that he had an improper backstop for target shooting, meaning the backstop that they had employed was not safe enough or up to the safety standards as set forth by the Pennsylvania Game Commission,” said defense lawyer Martin P. Mullaney.

Over the objection of prosecutors, Silow also signed an order returning to Beamer all property, 43 items including several guns, which had been seized by authorities during the investigation.

“I’m very happy with the result. I’m very, very surprised. I told my lawyer I almost feel like crying because this has dragged on for a year-and-a-half and I had the threat of going to jail. I just think it’s a great decision at this point,” Beamer said after the brief hearing. “I think the whole thing was mishandled by the New Hanover Township Police.”

As part of the plea agreement, other charges of aggravated assault of a police officer, conspiracy to engage in recklessly endangering another person, conspiracy to engage in propulsion of missiles into an occupied vehicle and resisting arrest were dismissed against Beamer.

“When we looked at the case we decided that this was the appropriate result,” Ryan explained, referring to the plea agreement. “There was no physical harm done in this case as a result of the defendant’s actions but certainly, and I can say this from speaking to the victim in the case, there was significant emotional trauma that occurred.”

Mullaney agreed the appropriate resolution was reached.

“The police filed charges under the circumstances and as the case proceeded through the criminal justice system the appropriate resolution was able to be fettered out. It just shows that the criminal justice system works,” Mullaney said on Beamer’s behalf.

“The cases have to proceed through the regular process and as we go through the process, facts come to light that may alter the commonwealth’s position on a case, and in this case I think they saw that this was merely an accident,” added Mullaney, explaining Beamer believed he was supervising a target shooting operation in a safe manner, albeit perhaps not up to commonwealth standards. “But they did what they thought they had to do to make this a safe target practice shooting event. That obviously didn’t occur when a stray bullet struck the back of an innocent motorist’s car and led us to this case.”

Five others, including three juveniles, also faced conspiracy-related charges in connection with the incident.

Michael Glazewski, of Hunter Lane in Perkiomenville, and Christopher Malinowski, of New Hanover Square Road in New Hanover, both 18 at the time of the incident, saw their charges dismissed under Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 586 in exchange for paying restitution to the victim for damage to the vehicle.

Authorities did not determine from whose firearm the striking bullet was discharged.

“The best you can say is it was a bullet that they believed came from this target shooting incident,” said Mullaney, claiming those who were on Beamer’s property had alerted local police that they would be target shooting that day. “It was in close proximity to where the car was shot, by accident, so they knew that the bullet came from that area but no one could ever identify the actual shooter of the gun that fired the actual specific bullet.”

“But the way we also looked at it was that Mr. Beamer was an adult supervising teenagers unsafely firing these high-powered rifles, so certainly he bore the responsibility of supervising those young people,” Ryan said.

An investigation began, according to court documents and a press release from New Hanover Township Police, when authorities were dispatched to the area of Route 73 and New Hanover Square Road around 3:35 p.m. Aug. 14, 2012, for a report of shots fired. When officers arrived they found the window of a Chevrolet Tahoe carrying a woman and her three children had been struck by at least one bullet, “narrowly missing passengers in the vehicle.”

No injuries were reported by individuals in the vehicle.

Police explained that upon further investigation, they found the gunshot had come from the direction of Beamer’s New Hanover Square Road home. When police went to the address, they found several people in the yard who were target shooting. Police took three adults and three juveniles into custody, and they also confiscated “numerous weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle, and AR-15 assault rifle, a .30-caliber high-powered rifle, shotguns and several handguns, as well as a substantial amount of ammunition.”

All of the weapons were legally owned.

At the time, police alleged Beamer ordered police to “get off of my damn property” and had become argumentative and combative with authorities, according to the criminal complaint. Beamer denied being combative.

About the Author

Carl Hessler Jr. writes about crime and justice at the Montgomery County Courthouse for The Mercury and 21st Century Media Newspaper’s Greater Philadelphia area publications. A native of Reading, he studied at Penn State University and Kutztown University before graduating from Alvernia University with a degree in communications. He is a recipient of a National Headliner Award and has been honored for his writing by the Keystone Press Association, Philadelphia Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania. Reach the author at chessler@pottsmerc.com
or follow Carl on Twitter: @MontcoCourtNews.